Pauses, and the beat

Calls that stutter while a speed test says all is well are often pauses: your Wi-Fi stops for a moment, then carries on. Open Pauses (⌘3) to see them. The number beside it in the sidebar is how many replies were slow.

• Each line is one reply from your router, sent 100 ms apart during the check. A dashed line marks 40 ms. A reply from your own router slower than that is a pause on your Wi-Fi, drawn tall and gold. A reply that never came back is drawn faint, at full height.
• Four numbers: Usual reply, Over 40 ms (for example 26 of 150), Longest pause and Lost.

The beat

When the slow replies come on a regular rhythm, Plain Air says so: Your Wi-Fi keeps time. About every 0.5 s, it stops for a moment. It says that only when the slow replies line up on one rhythm far more tightly than chance would: more tightly than 99% of shuffled arrangements of the same replies.

Otherwise it says Your Wi-Fi stops for a moment now and then. With only a few slow replies: “A few slow replies, not enough to notice.” With none: “No pauses: every reply came back quickly.”

Plain Air calls it pauses when more than 1 reply in 10 takes over 40 ms.

What to try

Under the numbers, To test: gives one step from the change most likely to help, with its button, then “Then press Check Again.” When AirDrop’s radio link is on, it’s: “Open Control Centre and set AirDrop to Contacts Only.” That’s a test, not a diagnosis: AirDrop’s radio link borrows the Wi-Fi radio from time to time, and if the tall lines go after the change, you have your answer. What to change